Article excerpt

Introduction

The Internet is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks. Internet is also described as the worldwide publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). Internet is the transport vehicle for the information stored in files or documents on another computer. It carries together various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web. The Internet itself does not contain information, it is a slight misstatement to say a "document was found on the Internet." It would be more correct to say it was found through or using the Internet. What it was found in (or on) is one of the computers linked to the Internet.

Every aspect of our day to day life is affected by the Internet. Whether it is shopping, business, banking, communication, paying bills, social gathering, party, learning, education etc. Internet is everywhere, knocking at our door, making our life easier and smooth. Moreover, when it comes to education and research Internet is paving way for a great leap and sure library and information centers has no exception. The Internet made the information on our finger tips. The libraries of the developed world has adopted the Internet facilities to provide the fast and better library services to its patron but this is not the case with many developing nations and third world countries. The libraries of the third world countries still do not have the basic Internet access facilities in many cases because of the poor funding and budget crisis, while we are talking about web 2.0 in countries like United States, Europe and other developed nations. This paper has also tried to explore broadly the importance of Internet with regard to access of information sources and its utilities for library patrons in academic organizations and institutions.

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is a residential academic institution located in the city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Originally it was Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which was founded by a great Muslim social reformer Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in 1875 and in 1920 it was granted a status of Central University by an Act of Indian Parliament. Modelled on the University of Cambridge, it was among the first institutions of higher learning set up during the British Raj. Aligarh Muslim University offers more than 250 courses in traditional and modern branch of education. The University is open to all irrespective of caste, creed, religion or gender. For more information please logon to university website: www.amu.ac.in.

Literature Review

Pangannaya (2000) is an attempt to investigate the use of Internet resources by the academic community of Mysore University, using survey as the research tool. The paper has investigated the faculty wise frequency and length of use of the Internet. Moreover, it describes the emergence of Internet, has revolutionized the academic world.

Darries (2004) discusses issues related to Internet-based reference . An electronic survey was conducted using the web and e-mail to distribute the questionnaire. The target population was the heads of reference services at large libraries and the directors at smaller libraries of the 36 higher education institutions in South Africa. The response rate to the questionnaire was 28 (30.4 %); two returned questionnaires were spoilt. These results showed that all libraries surveyed have Internet access, and all but one provided access to their users. Librarians had access to the Internet for a longer period than their users. User Internet training tended to be on a one-to-one basis at the point-of-use.

Jay and Webber (2005) conducted a research study which investigated the impact of the Internet on reference services in public libraries in England. …